Precious Moments

This week has been the week of very little computer or screen time.  I wrote on Tuesday about how we were all limiting it, including Gary and I.   I was finding it hard enough to fit in blogging since I have been using the night-time hour to, you know, sleep.  Cutting our computer time down to an hour a day, it is nearby impossible.  I know I will adjust and have been pleased to see not only an improvement in the general demeanour of the children but also a deeper understanding of why we have made the decisions we have.  T, in particular, has noticed a huge difference in his feelings towards the world in general after being on the computer.  On Wednesday he came off from his project time in the afternoon, and within minutes had snapped twice at his sisters.  He immediately apologised and then came to me to tell me all about the effects even that short time had on him.

I have spent the week with my children, and whilst that is not unusual, anytime I had a moment to spare I didn’t migrate towards the computer (there would have been no point.  It was off and remaining that way).  This gave me snatched minutes to spend setting up science for the little ones.  Not new science necessarily, just sciency activities and was overjoyed to see both A5 and B3 twirling about in their lab coats declaring for all to hear that they just loved science!

On Thursday I needed to turn on my computer to access some information about a hospital appointment and was shocked to hear myself tell the little ones to go and find something to occupy themselves so I could look up what I needed to.  It pulled me up short.  Their childhood will be so short.  I know this because the older one’s has gone by in a flash.  I don’t want to miss even a minute of it by being on the computer when I could be playing or chatting to them.  I have seen A5 blossom under the attention and it has made my resolve even stronger to choose carefully when I am staring at the screen.  I am finding the time for much more cooking and baking with my youngest two, who just love being in the kitchen with me:

And of course with the children having little to no screen time we have found lots of time just for the simple pleasures of being together.  The warm weather which we are currently experiencing in the UK has given us a great excuse to barbecue.  Emma is our old baby sitter who comes over to share a meal with us each Monday.  The children adore her and having her come round each week is a blessing for all:

The last picture was of our cats, George and Lucy.  They are 16 years old and brother and sister.  I found them lying on my computer chair in almost identical positions which I quickly snapped up!

T wasn’t a happy bunny in this photo as a ruckus at the park had caused him to damage his camera, which he has felt a little lost without this week.  We are hunting down a replacement screen from a buy for parts camera on Ebay.

I also snapped a few photos on my phone this week.  They weren’t terribly good ones but I don’t like taking my camera to the soft play area.  We are so glad we decided to join the leisure center.  The soft play, which the little ones go to almost everyday, has been fantastic for their physicality, especially A5 who would have been our least active child.  She now bounces around the place as if she owns it and has become very quick and very capable on all of the equipment.  Both girls, because they go at the same time each day, are starting to make some friends with the other boys and girls, which is also really great!

As for school, we are growing penicillin (hopefully) as well as some live cultures from yogurt (again hopefully); the children have written, made back ground and puppets for a play based on Chaucer’s Nun’s tale of Chanticleer.  They have done it 100% independently and will be putting on a show to their parents and Grand mother tomorrow.  We are in discussions about how to make school work with less computer access and if we have to go back to how we learnt last year that’s what we will do.

I am currently planning next term, which I have decided will be an all age study led by me.  I’ll share soon on my plans, but I am quite excited!  Next week I shall attempt to get more than a couple of post written…but I’m not promising anything!  I will be posting my Wibbly Wobbly Weightloss post on Saturday for anyone who wants to join in with our online ‘get healthy meetings’.  We are all enjoying the fellowship and encouragement we can offer each other and everyone is doing really well with their goals.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, full of love and laughter!